Longwood's Loss Of City Hall Wasn't Surprise

September 3, 1986|By Don Boyett, Seminole County Editor

Second time around: It's true that Longwood lost title to its first city hall because of a reverter clause in the deed, admits a former city commissioner. But that loss was different from the current fiasco in which the city could lose title to land where a new police station is going up.

''We knew we were going to lose the property the first city hall, but we had no choice. We were out of room,'' says Slick Helms, now a city building official. The potential loss of the former park land that's being converted to police headquarters came as a surprise after construction started.

The first city hall was at Wilma and Pine and had been a two-room schoolhouse until the old Lyman School was built in the '20s. Longwood founder E.W. Henck donated the old school building to the city, but stipulated that it would revert to him or his heirs should it cease being the city hall.

That happened in 1963 when the current city hall was built.

With all of city government, including the fire department, sharing two rooms, what else was there to do? asks Helms.

Bet you some commissioners wish they had such an easy answer today.

Reason enough: Mark her down as one who does not like cats, the caller said after reading about cat lovers vs. cat haters in this space last week.

Not wanting to disturb the fur of her neighbors, she wouldn't give her name, while listing the usual reasons one might hate cats. Those are reason enough, she said, but her dislike stems from an incident 46 years ago when, as a young mother, someone at the far end of the same apartment building complained of the caller's baby crying all night.

Had the baby cried, which it didn't, she said, the complainer couldn't have heard it. Later, she noticed a cat sitting in the complainer's window, mewing and sounding every bit like a crying baby. ''I know now that's why I hate cats,'' she said.

Her husband, however, has other reasons to dislike cats, she said. He's one of those bare-handed gardeners who delights in the feel of soil. Only problem is that a neighbor's cat roams the area and . . . well, you get the picture.